The winners of Vietnam’s Best Golf Course Awards 2019

Laguna Lang Co Golf Club triumphed by receiving the most coveted Vietnam's Best Golf Course 2019 title

The 8^th season of Vietnam’s Best Golf Course Awards gathered 52 golf courses of 18 holes (or more) in Vietnam, which were launched and have been officially operating since before December 2018, and have organised golf tournaments. Open for voting from June 1-July 31, Vietnam’s Best Golf Course Awards 2019 received a record number of 380,000 online votes (four times higher than in 2017).

After the online voting round, the judging panel members took an inspection trip to the golf courses receiving the most online votes and other prestigious courses in Vietnam in order to give an accurate evaluation and rating. The results of each judge were reported to the judging panel chaired by the Vietnam Golf Association, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam Administration of Sports, and international golf experts. This year’s judging panel notably includes USGA-accredited golf course raters and R&A Level-3 referees Hew Kwee Fah and Alan Yew, and GolfAsian’s managing director Mark Siegel who has a deep understanding of golf courses in Vietnam.

Vietnam's 10 best golf courses in 2019

“Since 2015, I have been coming to Vietnam to rate the golf courses here and looking at them with a technical eye. I am very impressed about the professionalism of the industry here. Though relatively young, it has been invested strongly to ensure that designs, management, and maintenance are optimal,” said Hew Kwee Fah, USGA-accredited golf course rater. She also emphasised that with the USGA rating systems, Vietnamese golfers’ handicaps can be used globally and visitors to Vietnam can assure that international systems are here, meaning that Vietnam’s courses are seen shoulder-to-shoulder with other golf courses in the world.

Doan Manh Giao, head of the organising board cum editor-in-chief of Vietnam Golf Magazine, commented, “Two years ago, Vietnam had only 30 golf courses with 20,000 golfers. This year the number has rocketed to nearly 60 courses and more than 40,000 golfers with increasingly better quality.”

“The awards will strongly promote the development of the Vietnamese golf industry, encouraging golf courses to upgrade their services and promote Vietnam as one of the most attractive golf destinations in the region and the world,” he added.

Launched in 2007, Vietnam’s Best Golf Course Awards, held by Vietnam Golf Magazine in co-ordination with the Vietnam Golf Association, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, and Vietnam Administration of Sports, has received great attention from the golf community, domestic and foreign golf investors, as well as the support of the media throughout the country.

With the aim of promoting Vietnam as an attractive destination for tourism and golf, encourage healthy competition among golf courses, and contribute to creating increasingly high-quality golf products, over the past 10 years, the judging panel has seen investors’ great efforts to upgrade their operating golf courses, improve service quality, as well as focus on designers, coaching and training, promotion, and world-class services when developing new golf courses.